Strong line-up for the first virtual Supercup season
The Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup Virtual Edition is ready to tackle its first-ever virtual season with an impressive line-up of 31 drivers. VIP vehicles driven by well-known professional racers will join the teams and drivers that have officially registered for this year’s real Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup season. The season takes off this Saturday (4 April) with a double-header event on the virtual version of the Spanish Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
“The Supercup is the pinnacle of Porsche’s one-make cups. I’m delighted that we’ve managed to come up with a great alternative under the current circumstances with no real motor racing. We have a top-class field and I’m very excited to see who’ll perform the best on a screen,” says Oliver Schwab, Project Manager of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup. The eleven Supercup teams compete with a total of 22 drivers, among them the two Porsche Juniors Jaxon Evans (NZ/Momo Megatron Lechner Racing) and Ayhancan Güven (TR/Martinet by Alméras).
Nine Porsche 911 GT3 Cup racers will be entered by partners and sponsors: The four Porsche works drivers Richard Lietz (Austria), Sven Müller (Germany), Nick Tandy (Great Britain) and Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium) helm the virtual vehicles fielded by App-Tech srl, Agility Management AG, ExxonMobil Oil Corporation and TAG Heuer SA. Porsche factory driver Simona de Silvestro (Switzerland) drives the Cup vehicle run by ABB. At the wheel of the digital racing car campaigned by Hugo Boss AG is Porsche Formula E driver André Lotterer (Germany). Porsche development driver Lars Kern (Germany) drives the ANSYS vehicle. Christian Engelhardt (Germany) and Fabienne Wohlwend (Liechtenstein) also take on the challenge in the Cup cars of ZF Friedrichshafen AG and the Vodafone Group Plc.
The first event of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup Virtual Edition will be broadcast via live streaming on www.porsche.com/virtualPMSCBarcelona. The commentary is provided by the former Supercup driver and current Eurosport expert, Jan Seyffarth. Sport1 also reports on the virtual racing series and televises the first two races live on Saturday on www.sport1.de. Moreover, the German television channel will air selected highlights on Sunday. Eurosport broadcasts live on www.eurosport.com and selected local websites – for example Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands and Spain. The TV station Ziggo Sport covers the virtual one-make cup in the Netherlands. Furthermore, the Porsche Motorsport Hub, the Porsche Newsroom and the Twitter account @PorscheRaces keep fans up-to-date with information about the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup Virtual Edition.
Last Sunday, contestants had the chance to take part in a nine-hour test on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The fastest time of the day was set by Porsche Junior Jaxon Evans, with the 23-year-old lapping the virtual circuit in a time of 1:47.738 minutes. The Luxembourger Dylan Pereira (BWT Lechner Racing/1:47.870 minutes) and Larry ten Voorde (Team GP Elite/1:47.906 minutes) from the Netherlands rounded off the top three.
The Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup Virtual Edition utilises the iRacing simulation portal. The calendar consists of four events – each with two 25-minute races. The first double-header round on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is followed by three more meetings at the Silverstone Circuit (Great Britain/18 April), the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium/25 April) and the Autodromo Nazionale Monza (Italy/16 May).
The schedule (4 April):
4.00pm – 4.15pm: Qualifying
4.20pm – 4.45pm: Race 1
4.50pm – 5.10pm: Warm-up
5.12pm – 5.37pm: Race 2
(All times CEST)